


Deep and inscrutable. Singular.

by TheMusicalCC



Series: Good Ending AU [4]
Category: The Real Ghostbusters
Genre: Baby Names, F/M, Fluff, Friendship, M/M, Parenthood, Self-Indulgent, as many as I need to not give up on life k thx, how many more of these am I gonna spew out you ask?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-05
Updated: 2018-12-05
Packaged: 2019-09-07 16:12:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16857193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMusicalCC/pseuds/TheMusicalCC
Summary: Parenting manuals indicate that a good way for the father to bond with the unborn child is to make a name list. Egon went a bit overboard.





	Deep and inscrutable. Singular.

“Holy _fudge_ , Spengz, what the _hell?_ ” Peter passed the pages -at least twenty of them. Twenty! With a small font!- on the metal-ringed binder he held and then back at Egon " _What the hell?_ ”

Ray and Winston, looking over his shoulder, seemed to share the sentiment but had managed to keep it to themselves.

“Uh, what Peter means to say is- don’t you think you might have overdone it a bit?” Ray said.

“A bit? It’s like he checked every goddamn baby name book in the world!”

“That would have been impractical, as most of them contain the same” Egon said, unaffected.

“Now you’re just being smart”

“OK, alright, timeout” Winston raised his hands to appease him “Egon, did you show Janine this?”

“I did” he looked a bit abashed “She suggested I narrowed it down before trying to show it to her again”

“To what? Just a thousand?” Peter said, passing the pages on the list the way one would a phone guide.

“I am aware that I may have gone overboard” Egon sighed “Which is why I’m asking you to help me narrow it down in the first place”

“I mean, I get it” Ray’s face was lit with a small, reminiscing smile “Remember spending days obsessing about what color we’d paint Alan’s room before he came to live with us, Winston?” Winston made a face that illustrated how much he still remembered it and how much he wished he didn’t “And it’s not like you’re any different with Shannon, Peter. You did gripe up a storm until you found the exact bed you wanted for his room”

“Yeah, but that’s _cute_ , Ray, this” Peter motioned for the binder again “This is downright crazy, it’s gonna take us all day”

“I got time” Winston shrugged.

“Yeah” Ray nodded.

“I bought snacks” Egon offered. Peter resisted one moment longer

“...What kind?”

“Chips, dip, soda... there may be a candy bar or two still”

“How did you keep that from Slimer?” Winston asked.

“Janine made me install ionized barriers around the fridge and some cabinets when she started with the cravings” Egon made a face between amused and terrified “I dare say he was starting to be cautious about what he ate by that time. She’d already threatened to blast him over a piece of cheesecake by then”

“Sounds perfectly reasonable” Peter nodded, opening the binder “OK, let’s do this”

They settled on the sofa with a soda can and a pen each, looking over the names critically. Egon had been as thorough as usual, each name had its meaning, phonetics and in some cases, an historic reference or two by them. They went over some common ones, surprised Egon would consider them at all, scratching them with their pens as they saw fit between comments and easy talk, until something got their attention.

“ _Anathema_ ” Winston read out loud before turning to Egon with a grimace “Really?”

“I am told she is one of the characters in ‘Good Omens’, which is one of Janine’s favorites” Egon explained.

“Yeah but you _do_ know what it means, right?”

“Of course”

“Then?”

“I am aware that sometimes things as being too smart or ahead of your time were causes for people to be rejected by the church and the people around them” he shrugged “It didn’t seem to me like a bad thing” Peter, Ray and Winston exchanged a glance.

“Yeah, I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say Janine isn’t going to be thrilled about this name” Winston deadpanned.

“So it’s a scratch?” Ray asked, more out of formality than anything else.

“Double scratch” Peter did it himself.

A while later, it was Peter that snorted and looked at him judgmentally.

“ _Beletseri_. Babylonian. Scribe of the underworld. Please tell me you’re kidding, big guy”

“I considered that given my former line of work…” Egon started.

“I’m pretty sure it’s still poor taste without this, but, did you forget that we took down a Babylonian God?”

“Sumerian”

“Whatever!” Peter scratched over the name with a little more strength than necessary.

The third time it was Ray that pinned eyes on Egon, but his expression was conspiratory.

“Eowyn?”

At the sound of the name, Winston raised his eyes too, smiling. Egon cleared his throat, his cheeks pink.

“ _I_ like it”

* * *

 By the time Janine arrived, they were still going over the names. Egon had rolled the old math blackboard into the elevator and down to the TV room and was writing, erasing and scratching multiple names as Ray, Winston and Peter discussed them.

“You really gotta stop suggesting the geeky names, Zedd. The kid’s gonna have enough of that being Egon’s” Peter was saying.

“Luthien’s not geeky, it’s awesome” Winston insisted.

“Nothing wrong with geeky! I knew a guy who named his daughter Tasha after a character in Star Trek” Ray piped in excitedly, helping himself to the chips and dip.

“Really?” Peter eyed them “I mean I’m surprised you two didn’t have Alan’s name legally changed to Obi Wan”

“ _Obi Wan?_ ” Winston and Ray said in unison, equally indignant.

“Alright, Han”

“Please tell me you’ve actually narrowed down Egon’s list” Janine called, stepping out of the elevator. Four sets of guilty eyes turned to her.

“Uh…”

“I mean…”

“I’m pretty sure we did” Peter said with the kind of confidence of someone wingin’ it “I’m pretty sure that even with the new suggestions it’s still less than what he had”

“You _added_ names?” she repeated. He grimaced.

“It’s still around half the names I was considering” Egon assured. She eyed the blackboard and shook her head.

“Narrow it down a bit more, please, you know I already came down to my top two options”

The four of them glanced at the board.

“Yeah… that’s gonna take a while” Winston sighs.

“Should I order pizza?”

“Yes please!” came the unanimous answer.

* * *

 She was asleep by the time they were done, there was only so much time she can stay awake after coming home from the University and while Ray’s constant talking to her tummy about the origins, meanings and implications of each name they go over was adorable (“See, little one? Merle not only has a rich history, it’s also the female variant of Merlin, which, come on, is _amazing_!”) she had class the next day and had to have her rest lest the big bump of week 22 repeat itself. She woke to Egon’s hand tenderly rubbing circles over her navel and found him seated on his side of the bed with his legs crossed. He was probably still wrapping his mind around things a bit. A girl, a daughter. Janine had been _this close_ to crying when the doctor told them, despite the fact that somewhere deep down she’d known already, but Egon? She was sure he hadn’t fully processed the idea yet, that he had inadvertently been thinking of his future child as a boy, perhaps planning all the ways in which he would be different as a parent than his own father, but there hadn’t been disappointment in his face upon learning this wouldn’t be so, just- just dazzled bewilderment, followed by almost impossible to contain glee. He had barely known what to do with himself in excitement. And that same excitement was apparent in how many names he considered and the way his face lit up as he looked down to her belly, the corners of his eyes crinkling slightly even if his mouth wasn’t smiling.

“How many did you guys manage to narrow it down to?” she muttered groggily. He didn’t even seem surprised to see her awake.

“Fifty-seven”

“For real?”

“And a half”

“Well, I guess it’s better than the twenty pages you originally had” she sighed, just as the baby shifted furiously inside her, reacting to her dad’s voice “Oof! Take it easy, kiddo”

“Has she been kicking a lot?” he asked, laying his head down onto her skin to feel the movement..

“Yeah, she likes to kick when momma’s trying to sleep, don’t ya, you little gremlin?” she softly admonished, rubbing the side of her belly, where something that felt like either an elbow or a knee was poking her. The baby took the hint and moved, much to Egon’s visible delight “I can already tell she’s gonna be giving me grief. Her father’s daughter through and through”

“I’m not so bad”

“You have your moments”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't sleep and this happened. Still couldn't sleep after, but at least now I'd produced fluff.
> 
> -Nerdy/geeky parenting gives me life and you can't honestly tell me Ray and Winston wouldn't be THOSE dads.  
> -If you've noticed Slimer isn't much in these and wonder why... I think you know why.  
> -You will pry the headcanon that Good Omens is one of Janine's favorites from my cold dead hands.  
> -First one to catch the reference in the title gets a 100 to 250 word drabble.


End file.
